Ladies&#39; shoes



Feb. 20, 1962 S. J. PHILIPSON LADIES SHOES Filed Oct. 27, 1960 United States Patent O York Filed Oct. 27, 1960, Ser. No. 65,472 2 Claims. (Cl. 36-72) This invention relates to ladies shoes and more particularly to ladies shoes which are fitted with a highly pointed conical-shaped, n'gid box cap over the existing leather or fabric toe of the shoe, the conical box cap having tapering sides and top terminating in a point to provide a pointed protective and ornamental outer toe cap secured at its base between the pointed shoe toe and the pointed shoe sole.

The novel cap of the invention is characterized by distinctive crimping and fastening features at its base for firmly securing the existing inserted shoe toe into close fitting relation into the surrounding metal cap and effectively interlocking the pointed sole toe portion and the pointed shoe toe upper. These crimping features in the rigid box cap of the invention applied to a ladys shoe eliminate the tendency of the pointed toe portion of the shoe sole to separate from the pointed toe upper during normal wear. At the same time the cap provides a pleasing and distinctive blending or contrasting ornamental appearance.

This separation of the pointed toe upper from the pointed toe sole portion in high heeled ladies shoes occurs during normal wear by virtue of the fact that a the toe upper tip and sole tip portion receive maximum wear at the point where there is a minimum of leather in either shoe upper or shoe sole to withstand such Wear. This high heel construction and narrow pointed toe shoe style, which is in great vogue and in great demand, has therefore not been as serviceable as desired. As soon as an unsightly appearance occurs due to scufling, marking and tearing at the toe or as soon as perceptible separation of the sole tip results, the shoe is discarded.

To obviate this unsightly condition and the inherent tendency of the pointed sole tip to catch on even small obstacles in normal walking, a cleat or button is generally fastened at the pointed vertex of the sole toe portion with the prongs of the cleat providing additional securing engagement of the sole toe tip to the toe upper.

Despite the use of this cleat, which incidentally is centered at the very pointed tip of the sole, this tip formed an angle between about and about 30, the narrowed sole tip becomes quickly abraded, torn and tends to be pulled away from the upper in normal wear. This condition thus materially detracts from the appearance of the ladys high style and high priced shoe and creates a real problem for the wearer of this shoe.

Tip designs have been proposed for high style ladies shoes in which the toe upper extends slightly beyond the pointed sole tip, but the resulting wear is all on the upper. In this case, the pointed sole tip is beveled to be tucked in so to speak, with the upper toe in slight advance of the sole tip and the result of this design is merely transfer the location of unsightly appearances resulting from normal scuffing from the bottom portion of the shoe to a still more undesirable location, the tip upper. This design to solve the problem is thus unsatisfactory.

Hidden steel box toe construction as used in mens shoes and boots to protect the foot against shock cannot be employed because the character of ladies high style shoes require a soft flexible upper and lightness of construction. Further, such hidden safety toe does not protect the shoe toe point and no advantage of improved wear with brand new appearance can be 3,21,618 Patented Feb. 20, 1962 realized. Even if the toe portion were modified With rigid cover portion of harder wear resistant material, the insertion of the internal safety box causes discomfort to the wearer at the inner toe portion (see Schulz, United States patent, No. 2,795,868). Obviously an additional liner as proposed in the Schulz patent would defeat the-very style concept of the shoe.

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an inflexible protective and ornamental box cap which will obviate scufiing, marking and tearing at the pointed toe upper of a ladys shoe and fixedly secure the pointed toe upper to the pointed toe sole without likelihood of dislodging it.

It is a further object of the invention to employ thin gauge ornamental metal construction for the highly pointed conical box cap of the invention such as anodized aluminum and alloys, anodized magnesium and alloys, painted and lacquered ferrous metals, highly polished copper and brass and similar rigid decorative materials, these permitting harmonizing colors or contrasting colors, being readily commercially available and being easily formed by conventional metal forming techniques.

Other and further objects of the present invention will oppear from the more detailed description set forth below, it being understood that such more detailed description is given by way of illustration and explanation only and not by way of limitation since various changes therein may be made by those skilled in the art with out departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.

In connection with that more detailed description, there is shown in the drawings, in

FIG. I, a top plan view of a ladys shoe fitted with the novel pointed box cap of the invention;

FIG. 2, a fragmentary side elevation view at the forward end of the shoe shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3, a bottom plan view taken along line 33 showing the outer sole 14 broken away;

PEG. 4, an enlarged perspective view of the novel pointed toe box cap of the invention; and

PEG. 5, an enlarged sectional view along line 5-5 of FIG. 3 also showing the outer sole toe position resting in the shelf of the toe plate.

In accordance with the invention, there is shown in FIG. 1, a ladys high style shoe 1 comprising upper 10 terminating in high pointed toe 10a, spike heel 13 and the novel box cap of the invention 11, preferably formed of metal which fits in close relation over the pointed upper toe portion 10a.

The enlarged perspective view of the novel pointed toe box cap 11 which is shown in FIG. 4 illustrates the distinctive crimping and interlocking features which prevent dislodgement of the toe cap while firmly fixing the base of the cap in interlocking engagement between the pointed toe upper 11a and the pointed sole toe tip portion 15. As shown in FIG. 4, the metal box cap is formed in one piece, conveniently by stamping from thin metal stock such as aluminum or aluminum alloy, brass, steel, copper, magnesium, etc. with a body portion of conical shapes, the tapering sides and top of the body portion terminating at the narrow pointlike generally semicircular opening 16 and dependent from the conical body portion inwardly projecting flanges, left flange 17 and right flange 21 which lie in substantially the same plane, the plane bisecting the cone of revolution represented by the side and upper body surfaces.

These inwardly turned flange portions 17 and 21 are each formed with a scalloped edge remote from the bent edge defining the start of the flange and the side portions of the cap. The scalloped edge of the flanges 17 and 21 are formed to provide a plurality of scalloped projections which increases the contacting area of the flanges beyond that which would be bad if the edge were straight. The flange width at the widest opening of the box cap 11, e.g., the base of the box cap, is much wider than the width forward from the base, three scal lops upwardly. Left shelf 12a and right shelf 12!) come into abutting relation at the forward end of the flanges '17 and 21 and immediately ahead of this shelf at base of tip opening 16 there is a raised tip. The function of the shelf 12 is to provide additional securement between the sole tip portion 15 and the box cap 11. Effectively, left shelf 12a and right shelf 12b of flanges '17 and 21 respectively form a shaped recess, the width of the recess being slightly larger than the Width of the tapered sole tip portion 15 so that as shown in FIG. the tip rests on the shelf with the sloping edges in interfitting relation with the sides of sole tip 15 and the outer raised forward edges of the flange at the very tip 16 in interfitting relation with the front edge of the sole toe tip portion 15. Therefore, the sole toe tip portion rests in the recess 12 and is surrounded by the walls of this recessed shelf on three sides.

This inter-fitting relation shown in PEG. 5 is also shown in side elevation in FIG. 2, the forward opening 16 of rigid box cap projecting slightly forward of the leading edge of the toe tip 15.

Effectively, each of the flanges 17 and 21 is tapered and each comprises two distinct portions with coacting crimping functions, the first tapered portion each with scalloped edge being widest at left base 19 and right base 18 and tapering to the narrowest portion immediately adjacent the shelf areas 12a and 12b providing the recess table for the sole toe tip 15. Although the raised outer surface of each of the flanges which lie in the same plane and form an overlapping metal tip ahead of both shoe point a and sole point 15, the depth of the left shelf 12:: and right shelf 12b is such that the extreme forward overlapping and Side abutting undersurface of the flanges lies generally above the upper surface of the sole tip to prevent any stubbing action of the forward lower tip of metal against the surface of the ground during normal walking. As shown in FIG. 4 the flanges at this forwardrnost tip of the base come into edge abutting relation in the same plane and a metal wearing undersurface for the tip protects the point of the sole toe portion 15 from being caught and separated during normal wear. At the base portions of the flanges 17 and 21 openings 20 are provided which are adapted to receive a nail or other fastener if desired. For most applications, such nail is not needed since the metal toe cap 11 is forced over the existing toe 10a by hand or with a tool and the inner dimensions of the flanges 17 and 21 of the body portion of the cap are so proportioned so that the scallops effectively dig into the bottom edges of the upper point toe 16a with the scallop projections providing such a tight interfit with these inner lower edges of the upper to prevent dislodgernent even by prying. This fitting of the toe cap 11 is done before the outer sole 14 is attached to the shoe. The outer sole portion 14 is attached after the toe cap portion 11 is fastened to the shoe and therefore covers flanges 17 and 21. The cleat 22 shown in F168. 2 and 5 of conventional construction serves to provide additional securement, however, the cleat is not necessary since any strong adhesive or nails through openings 20 serve to fix the sole in interlocking relation, particularly by virtue of the shelf 12 providing recess at tables 121! and 12b for the extreme point of sole tip 15.

I claim:

1. A rigid ornamental box toe adapted for protecting the pointed tip of a shoe by force fitting over said toe between the inner lower edges of the toe upper and the pointed outsole tip portion, comprising a conical-shaped body portion having tapering top and sides terminating in a generally semicircular opening at the pointed tip thereof, inturned flanges at the widest opening of the base of said body portion extending forwardly towards said tip, and a bottom shelf portion immediately below and adjacent said opening at the tip,-said internal flanges being wider at their rear edges remote from said opening and tapering to a narrower width immediately adjacent said shelf portion, and said shelf portion formed by a recess in back of said flanges forward of said narrower portion of said flanges, said recess adapted to receive the outsole tip in flush engagement with the outer surface of the box toe tip at the base thereof.

2. A box toe as claimed in claim 1 wherein said flanges are scalloped and are each provided with an opening at the edge remote from the base tip portion for serving for nailing the cap at its rear to the shoe.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 280,264 Walker June 26, 1883 616,810 Simister Dec. 27, 1898 1,245,763 Pass Nov. 6, 1917 1,317,427 Carroll Sept. 30, 1919 2,007,728 Ranauro July 9, 1935 2,141,345 I Coenen Dec. 27, 193.8 2,325,741 Chertok Aug. 3, 1943 2,795,868 Shultz June 18, 1957 2,878,597 Justin Mar. 24, 1959 2,927,384 Dufiy Mar. 8, 1960 FOREIGN PATENTS 742,626 Germany Dec. 8, 1943 988,289 France Apr. 25, 1951 "art 

